


Reason Number Five

by fellasisitgay91219



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Meeting, Alternate Softer World, And is Friends with Everyone, Andreil, First Kiss, M/M, Multi, Neil wears fashionable clothes, Very Soft Hours, andrew is gay for neil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:52:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29243871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fellasisitgay91219/pseuds/fellasisitgay91219
Summary: Andrew Minyard's (Five) Very Good Reasons For Hating Neil Josten**Very Soft Addition
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 10
Kudos: 213
Collections: All for the Game Fics





	Reason Number Five

**Author's Note:**

> Softer, with a couple changes to canon, and everyone is living their best lives

Andrew hated the boy who sat in front of him in his Russian class. 

Probably more than he had ever hated anyone before. 

His name was Neil Josten, and he filled Andrew with rage. 

He normally didn’t rationalize why he hated someone, but he supposed this was a special case. Bee always said it was helpful to air out his grievances through pen and paper. Henceforth, his list of reasons why Neil made his blood boil. 

Andrew Minyard’s Very Good Reasons for Hating Neil Josten, his notebook paper read.

Reason number one, his clothes. 

Neil Josten showed up the first day of class in ratty jeans and a grey shirt that had been washed so many times the neck was stretched out and loose. He looked like someone who had been kicked out of their home in 2007. Andrew was disgusted, but hadn’t hated him then. Sure, the boy couldn’t dress. Neither could the rest of the straight male population. He had written him off as ratty and not worth another thought. 

Except, the next class he showed up looking so completely different, that Andrew had done a double take. The boy sitting in front of him was wearing black skinny jeans, a black turtleneck and a white graphic tee shirt. Nicky probably would have called him an e-boy. 

Andrew called him interesting. 

He spent half of the class staring at the back of his head. He had gotten a haircut, Andrew realized. An undercut, his red hair poofy and curly at the top. Andrew wondered what it would be like to run his hands through it. 

He shut down that thought and turned to his notebook. It was empty, his notebooks always were, and he imagined picking up his pencil and drawing the mysterious boy in front of him. He would spend forever on his hair, getting the curls just right. 

The ghost of a boy smirked up at him from his notebook. 

Andrew slammed it closed. He was not going to obsess over a boy just because he had gone shopping for decent clothes. He was going to pay attention in class. 

Andrew spent the rest of class playing candy crush and ignoring the teacher. 

Their third class was when Andrew decided to hate the red headed boy. 

He did not show up looking like someone down on their luck nor did he look like an e-boy. He wore an oversized red, white and blue button up under light blue overalls. His hair was styled slightly different, more waves then curls, and he had shutter sunglasses pushed on top of his head. Andrew squeezed his pencil until it broke. 

He hadn’t actually seen the boys face yet. The boy always arrived before him and Andrew always entered through the back of the room. He guessed he could enter from the front, but it seemed like a lot of work for a boy he did not give a shit about. Besides, if he never saw his face, he could picture it as unattractive. 

At this point, he hadn’t even learned the boy’s name. Their teacher didn’t call roll and he didn’t know how to figure it out. He would never ask his family and he didn’t know how to describe him to Renee. Infuriatingly pretty red hair and fit body didn’t mean much to a lesbian. 

He spent the rest of the class trying not to stare at the boy’s head and failing. 

He spent the rest of the class repeating, “I hate him, I hate him, I hate him,” in his head. 

Their fourth class the boy wore beige monochrome. Andrew learned his name was Neil when he was called on. “Neil.” Their teacher said. “Do you know how to ask where a restroom is?” 

Neil answered in a string of rapid russian. The teacher nodded approvingly. 

Their fifth class Neil wore stretchy black pants and a black cropped sweatshirt. When he stood up to leave, Andrew had to grip his chair. 

So yes, he absolutely hated Neil Josten’s wardrobe. And he hated Neil for wearing it. 

The second reason developed outside of their Russian class. 

Normally after World Lit, he met up with Nicky in the courtyard so that they could drive back to the dorm together. On the third Wednesday of the semester, he wasn’t there. 

Andrew scowled and kicked a bench, scaring the couple making out on it. He was tempted to leave, but he didn’t want to deal with Nicky’s whining later. 

His cousin wasn’t hard to find. Partly because of his loud voice, partly because he was fucking predictable. 

Andrew found him loitering outside the foreign language building, talking to his boyfriend and... Neil Josten. In the flesh. 

Andrew clenched his fists and walked up behind Nicky. 

Neil raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. Nicky continued to yammer on in German, he was learning it for his Foreign Exchange Student boyfriend, and Neil nodded along like he understood. Maybe he did. That made Andrew even more mad. 

“Nicky.” He growled. 

His cousin jumped and turned. “Oh! Andrew! Hey! Let me introduce you to-”

“I already know Neil.” He said. 

Neil didn’t react. That was suspicious. As far as he knew, Neil had never seen him before. Unless he had eyes on the back of his fucking head. 

“Wha-” Nicky started. 

Andrew just glared at him. “Car.” Then he walked away. He assumed Nicky was behind him. If he wasn’t, that was his loss. 

After that, it seemed Neil was everywhere. He sat with Nicky at lunch and they spoke rapid German. Aaron apparently was being tutored in Calculus by him, and begrudgingly said he was helpful. Kevin had apparently known him the whole time. They were on the stick ball team together and Kevin said he had potential. Then he started to beg Andrew to join and he promptly left. Even Renee, the only person he could never be annoyed at, seemed to know the parasite. Neil was best friends with her girlfriend. “We’re seeing a movie tonight.” Renee told him after one of their matches. “Would you like to come?”

Andrew just stared at her. 

Later, when he checked his phone in the Maserati, he found she had forwarded him a ticket. He marked the email as read and drove away. 

It seemed Neil was now a part of his life. Neil with his unpredictable clothing and perfect hair. Neil who, Andrew learned after their first meeting, had an unfairly pretty face. Neil was a mystery and he didn’t like mysteries. He liked all of his facts right in front of him, so that nothing could surprise him. 

Andrew decided he would have to learn his every secret. That, sadly, meant he’d have to spend time in front of his stupidly attractive face. 

Reason number two was that Neil had wiggled his way into his life, like the heart worm his cat had gotten last fall. 

Reason number three was that Neil refused to be phased by anything. 

After Russian, one random Friday, Andrew cornered him against a desk and casually pulled out his knife. 

“You’re going to tell me your every secret.” He said, voice dull like he didn’t care. He inspected the knife, then looked up at Neil’s eyes. They were a sharp blue that made Andrew shiver internally. “Or else.” He finished.

Neil snorted. He stood in front of Andrew and his knife, and snorted. “Or else what?”

Andrew gestured with his knife. Most people didn’t need that line drawn for them. He guessed Neil was just dumber than most. 

Neil only seemed amused. “You think I’m afraid of a measly knife? Have you seen my face?”

Andrew had and it haunted his wet dreams. He couldn’t stop thinking about those sharp eyes, that quirk of a smile, his forehead lined with curly red hair. 

He didn’t say any of this out loud. 

“Besides,” Neil continued. “You can’t properly use that thing.”

Blind rage filled Andrew. “What.” He growled. 

Neil didn’t even blink. “You’re holding it wrong. Anyone worth their shit would be able to disarm you.” Then he did just that. He barely even touched Andrew. It might have been the sexiest thing that someone had done to him. 

“You.” Andrew said, narrowing his eyes as Neil handed back his knife. “I hate you.” 

Neil just smirked. 

He hated him. He wanted to shove him to the ground, wrap his legs around his torso, feel his body under Andrew’s and shut that damn mouth up with his own. 

Andrew left the room, angry and turned on. 

After that Neil decided to actively seek him out. In Russian he sat next to him, wearing an emerald green blazer with a white shirt and dark jeans or a fuzzy pink sweater with leggings that made Andrew pray. He rattled on about stick ball or their classmates. When Andrew didn’t respond, he stole his notebook and doodled in it. Once, when Andrew hadn’t answered him at all, he pointed to his hand. “Can I draw on you?” He asked. 

Andrew stared at him and considered bringing his knives out but dismissed that thought. He didn’t want to be embarrassed again. “I will pulverize your family.”

Neil shrugged and moved away. “I don’t have one.”

He cocked his head. This was the first fact he had gotten from Neil’s lips. 

He knew more about his friends Matt and Dan then about the boy himself. 

“Yes.” He said finally. 

“What?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Neil gently took his hand and drew on it. He touched him like he knew Andrew didn’t like to be touched. He didn’t know how he could know this, he hadn’t told him, and his family never got the memo. Maybe Renee had warned him. 

After class Andrew stared at his doodle covered palm and wanted to punch something. Neil perhaps. 

He would rather kiss him though. 

The next Monday, Andrew invited him to Columbia. Neil stared at him blankly. 

“What?”

“Alcohol. Clubbing. Kevin drunk out of his mind. Sleep in real beds.” He listed blankly. “Yes or no?”

“Yes-” Neil started. Then, “I don’t have anything to wear.”

Andrew stared at him. That statement made no sense to him. Neil always had things to wear. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he had ever seen him in the same outfit twice. Andrew gestured to his current outfit, a rose gold fit shirt with emerald green pants. 

Neil glanced down. “Oh these? These aren’t mine.”

Andrew hissed, “What.”

Neil shrugged. “I wore my normal clothes on the first day of school and my housemates threw a fit. Apparently I looked like I came out of a trash bin. Everyday since then someone’s been dressing me.”

Andrew blinked. This felt like another secret, another piece of the mystery before him. Neil Josten apparently did in fact dress like goodwill rejects, when it was up to him. 

“I will get you something.” He said finally. He could already imagine Neil in clothes he picked out himself. He wondered if the others dressing Neil felt the same warmth in their stomachs at the thought. 

“Okay.” Neil said, slightly bemused. “I’ll tell Allison she has some competition.”

Andrew didn’t talk to him the rest of class. 

He spent the rest of the week trying not to think about Neil or spending time with him. No matter what he did, joked about killing Aaron’s mother, threatened someone, played with his knives, Neil seemed unfazed. In fact, he showed him how to hold his knives better. He mentioned watching his father die. He laughed when someone ran away from Andrew. 

“The others said you were scary.” Neil said drowsily one night, as they walked back from the library. “I don’t understand why.”

Andrew just pushed him into the passenger seat and drove him home. 

The fourth reason Andrew hated Neil was that he was so fucking understanding. 

He showed up at Andrew’s dorm wearing the clothes he had picked out. Andrew had decided to lean into the punk of Eden’s and gave him black leather pants, a sheer black shirt with a velvet section where the chest was and heavy black boots. Neil, surprisingly, had added thick eyeliner under his eyes. It made Andrew want to shatter something. 

“Allison.” Neil supplied. 

“I can’t talk to you right now.” Andrew replied, climbing into the car, where Aaron and Nicky waited. 

Neil sat next to him and didn’t say a word as they drove to Wymack’s to pick up Kevin. 

Nicky started a conversation with Neil, who looked at Andrew with a question. He just quirked an eyebrow as if to say, I didn’t say you couldn’t talk at all. Neil nodded and answered Nicky’s questions carefully. 

Fuck, he even understood Andrew’s looks. 

He was doomed. 

By the time they got to Eden’s, Andrew had decided he couldn’t continue living like this. There was so much hatred burning in his body and it was only growing by the minute. He had three choices, he decided. Either he would get Neil expelled from their school so that he would never have to see him again, fake his own death so that he would never have to see him again, or kiss him into oblivion. 

He was leaning towards the second option. 

When they arrived, he dropped the others off and parked his car. He was wearing a tight black shirt with a leather jacket and tight black pants. He had redone his black nail polish, and added some heavy silver rings. He stared at his reflection in the car’s windows, then went to find the others. 

They were admitted to the club, Aaron showed off his toxic masculinity handshake, and Kevin found them a mostly empty table. Nicky and Aaron cleaned it, while Kevin found an extra seat. Neil just stood there, awkwardly looking pretty. 

Andrew looked away and dreamed of faking his own death. 

When they were ready, he grabbed Neil’s sleeve and went to the bar. 

“The usual.” He said in a bored monotone to Roland. 

“Well hello to you too.” Smirked his past hookup. “Long time no see.” His eyes caught Neil. “New member of the gang?” 

Andrew’s nose flared at that. Neil just looked blankly at Roland. 

When it seemed like they weren’t going to answer, Roland grabbed their drinks and sent them on their way. 

Back at the table, Nicky was talking about his boyfriend, apparently the German invited him to visit him that summer, and Kevin was looking increasingly antsy. 

Andrew gave them their drinks and sent them on their merry way. 

Neil did not drink. 

“Bottoms up.” Andrew dead toned, staring into Neil’s eyes. 

Neil rolled his eyes. “I don’t drink.” 

Kevin glanced between them. 

“Why not?” Andrew asked, switching to Russian. 

Neil, for once, seemed shocked. “You never pay attention in class.” He answered, also in Russian. 

Andrew shrugged. “You always doodle. We all have our methods.”

Neil took this as an answer, then, “I hate losing control.” He said evenly. “I don’t feel safe enough to drink.”

“Afraid you’ll lose your secrets?” Andrew scoffed. 

Neil just nodded. 

“For someone with secrets, you answer questions well.” Andrew couldn’t help himself. 

Neil looked at the dance floor, then back at Andrew, their eyes meeting. 

He’d never get over those blue eyes. 

“You said you wanted to know my every secret.” He answered nonchalantly. “It’s pretty hard to just pull those out on a whim. I figured the least I could give you was honest answers.”

Andrew hated him so much in that moment. He could kiss him, right then and there. 

Neil Josten had no right to be so... so Andrew adaptable. No one else ever was. They treated his needs like inconveniences. Or worse, like jokes. 

Neil had yet to cross any boundaries and Andrew hated him for it. 

“How did you get your scars?” Andrew asked bluntly. 

Neil didn't even flinch. “Father mostly. Or his people. Can I ask a question?”

Andrew nodded slowly. He knew what it would be, what was under his arm bands. 

Neil surprised him, yet again. His surprises were starting to be unsurprising because he never did anything he was supposed to. “Why do you hate your brother?” He asked. 

Andrew frowned. “What gave you that impression.”

Neil thought about his question. “Aaron mostly. You don’t talk to him either.”

“I don’t talk to anyone.”

“You talk to me.”

Fuck. 

“I hate you.” 

Neil nodded. “Why do you hate Aaron?”

Andrew rolled his shoulders back. Kevin had lost interest in their Russian discussion. He stared at his hands, then Neil’s face. “He hates me. For killing his mother. For forcing him to isolate himself in high school. For breaking his drug addiction.”

Neil frowned. “He doesn’t hate you. He thinks you hate him.”

“Well I don’t.”

Neil pondered this. Then, “Okay. Your turn.”

“I don’t have to take it now.”

A shrug and they watched the dancing crowd. 

“You could work on your present and past tenses.” Neil said easily. 

“You could learn to shut up.”

He laughed and they went back to a comfortable silence. 

Around two in the morning, they dragged the drunk ones back to the house. Once they were there, Andrew trusted them to get to their rooms. He pulled Neil to the porch and sat him on the swing. He stood in front of him, looking down on his sharp blue eyes for once. 

“Yes or no?” He asked. 

Neil’s eyes sparkled. “Yes or no, what?” He teased. 

“Can I kiss you?” Andrew asked, his eyes stuck on Neil’s. 

“Oh.” Andrew took a step backwards. Neil put his hand out as if to grab him but stopped. “Yes. You took me by surprise but ye-“

Andrew kissed him. 

He had never hated him more, which made good fuel for his kiss. 

Neil kissed as if he wanted nothing else in the world but to kiss him. He kept his hands to himself, without Andrew having to ask. They kissed and Andrew felt himself relax for the first time in weeks. 

Another piece of Neil Josten, in his palm. 

Or rather, underneath his thumbs. 

When they pulled away, Neil’s eyes were large and a smile broke his face. “Can’t believe we haven’t been doing that for weeks. What a waste.” He joked. 

“Shut up.” Then, “Can I?” Andrew gestured at his lap. 

“Yes.”

Andrew straddled him and kissed him until they both saw stars. 

Neil was too fucking understanding. Andrew couldn’t stand it. 

Reason number five was why Neil was currently sitting in front of him, instead of his normal spot next to him. They had been stealing kisses together for weeks, and Andrew had grown accustomed to brushing his pinky against Neil’s in class or finding the other boy’s stare on his face. 

It was too much today. 

He had woken up feeling foggy, like he was trapped underwater. He was barely in the present, constantly finding himself slipping into the past. He had texted Bee, an action he could not remember doing, and she had told him to focus on good memories. If he was to go into the past, he might as well remember things that made him happy. 

So he was writing his list of reasons why he hated Neil. 

Reason number five was that Neil was so bright. Neil currently wore a pastel green tennis skirt and a dark blue long sleeved button up. Neil liked to call him before bed and fall asleep on the phone. Neil followed him onto the roof and inhaled his smoke. Neil told him whatever he wanted to know, no matter how grim or gory. Neil was so fucking bright and he made him so fucking happy. 

Normally it made Andrew hate him so intensely, that he couldn’t help but stare back. 

Right now, it was too much. He had to put distance between them. 

He finished his list and balled it up. He threw it at the back of Neil’s head. 

Neil turned around, eyes wide, and grabbed it from the floor. Andrew watched as he unfurled it and read it. A soft smile crept up his face. 

“I feel the same.” Neil said, looking up. 

Andrew was still stuck under water, but he couldn’t wait until he was up again. 

He nodded and started a new list. Reasons why Kevin was the most annoying person in the world. That one would take him till the end of Russian. Possibly longer.

**Author's Note:**

> This was just an excuse to write Neil in smoking clothes and Andrew appreciating his ass


End file.
